Australian Aboriginal Music

Different aspects of dances all represent something special and meaningful to each specific tribe. Firstly, the purposes of the Native American’s dances are for entertainment, religious rituals, successful hunts, harvests, to give thanks, prayer, victory, mythology, along with many more. (Weiser- Alexander and Alexander) In the video Native American Indian

Ceremonies are an important aspect of traditional Indigenous life and are still practised in some parts of Australia. These ceremonies may include rituals, chanting, singing and dancing to their Ancestral beings.

The Australian Music Scene is on of the best and is growing. Even though it is far away from major musical capitals such as America and the UK there is still a thriving live music scene in Australia. There are many different cultures and genres that musicians play in Australia. With so many festivals and gigs throughout the long summers, musicians love to come and play in Australia.

Australian Aboriginals used danced to communicate stories of the cultural spirits and legends, along with tell stories of the past, present and future with those in their community (Cheeky Dancers, n.d.). There is a sense of pride when they dance and pass on their history and culture to the generations after them (The age, 2013). Aboriginal people are proud of their heritage and dance allows them to express their thoughts and views of the world the way they see

The Dreaming stories pass on important knowledge, cultural values and belief systems to later generations. This is done by song, dance, storytelling and painting. Indigenous Australians have maintained links to The Dreaming dating back from ancient times up to the present, providing a very rich cultural heritage. The role that The Dreaming plays in Indigenous Australian life is very important to this culture as it holds big significance of how Indigenous Australians and their culture came to be.

The Aboriginal culture believes that their land was was created by the ancestor spirit of the dreaming, and people were formed by that land and are connected and linked to it. This relationship to their land gives them their social identity and connects them within their clan. The loss of their language and mother tongue has made it extremely impossible to pass on beliefs and traditions in an authentic way.

The Dreaming is communicated through songs, stories and rituals, in which is explains how the “creator ancestors shaped the land and brought it to life” (Gammage, 2011, p. 1419). All of life, from religion, geography, life and more, are explained and connected to the Aboriginal people’s spirituality, land and family through this form of communication. The Dreamtime “shapes the Aboriginal people’s view of the universe and themselves” (Wierzbicka & Goddard, 2015, p. 43). The passing on of the Dreaming stories from one generation to the next was a “most important aspect of education” (Edwards, 1998, p. 83) and is seen as the fundamental reality. Edwards stated that through ritual, humans are able to “enter into a direct relationship with

Australian Dance is highly diverse in form and geographical distribution but it uncovers a continuous captivation with the body, the place, popular culture and the multicultural society.

The Osoyoos Indian Band is one of the Okanagan National Alliance First Nations holding 32,000 acres of land in the Okanagan Valley. The Band was formed in 1877 and is known for its rise from poverty and its success relative to other First Nation’s Bands across Canada (MacDonald, 2014). The Band’s vision is to achieve self-reliance through economic development and preserve the first nation culture (oidbc, 2015). Their land offers opportunities for agriculture, eco-tourism, commercial, industrial and residential developments, which will assist in their mission to becoming one of the major economic generators in the South Okanagan. They currently have no completed treaty agreement.

To better understand Aboriginals as a Dream Culture I want to give more insight into Aboriginal Australians general culture and their conceptions of “Dream Time.” In his discussion of religion, Mircea Eliade describes a concept of Cosmos vs Chaos (Eliade 1957). In this notion an unordered world is chaotic only until is it transposed during a sacred time: “By occupying it and, above all, by settling in it, man symbolically transforms it into a cosmos though a ritual repetition of the cosmogony” (Eliade 1957:31). In other words until a land is tamed or created it is considered unordered. This can be applied to Aboriginal’s understanding of the world prior to their current presence. Aboriginals believe that in a time before the Dreamings, the land and world was a featureless earth. It was not until the dreamtime, or time of creation: “where there is contact with appearances from both realms of inside the earth itself as from ill-defined upper region” that the earth began to have its composed landscapes (Cowan 1992:26). The Dream Time is not only a period but more of a dimension where ancestral beings moved across the earth and created not only land, but every aspect of the earth including animals, plants, and man. It is important to realize that the ancestors created the natural earth and that is why Aboriginals live a particular lifestyle. Most Aboriginals living in this cosmogony are hunter-gatherer tribes. This aspect of their life can be traced to stem from the idea of

Aboriginals or indigenous Australians are the native people of Australia. Aboriginals were nomadic people who came to Australia about 40,000 – 60,000 years ago from Southeast Asia. Religion is a great part of Aboriginal culture. The essay answers these questions: What do Aboriginals belief? What is a Kinship system? What is Dreaming and Dreamtime? What rituals does Aboriginals have?

American Indian life in the present time can be characterized as one big melting pot. Some societies try to preserve their own identity, while other groups came together in some way and brought their cultures together. A lot of what is known about their music has come from the past century when technological advancements were just beginning to take place. It was also during this period of time that there was a lot of turmoil between the whites. It was obvious that each tribe had its own musical identity, whether it dealt with style, uses of, or ideas of what music was. At that time there were thousands of groups, all speaking their own language, and each had several songs to accompany ceremonies, dances, and to divide society. Anthropologists have put them into categories according to their ways of life.

Race socially is a sensitive category with deep historical significance presenting many issues arising from the past. The Indigenous population inhabited Australia for over 50,000 years. However, upon British settlement and colonisation of Australia in 1788, dominance and control over the Indigenous population was established creating issues that shaped their native rights and title as traditional landowners. Upon colonisation within Australia, the British created a sum of sanctions of social jurisdiction disrupting the Indigenous population notion of ownership of origins and race. Cultural conformity to these guidelines constricted and ensured Indigenous groups adhered to these sanctions. Hence, Indigenous culture became constricted through

In Aboriginal Traditions and Policy, the presentation group that I was part of consisted of Ashleigh, Tam, Jy, Lana, Khoi and myself. We chose Gertrude Street (a.k.a “The Dirty Mile”) to be our chosen site to research. Gertrude Street belonged to the Woiworung Tribe and was Melbourne’s first suburb after being separated from Melbourne City in 1858 (Fitzroy History Society 2018). It was known as ‘The Dirty Mile’ or ‘The Black Mile’, as it “was home to some legendary black pubs, and later, the Aboriginal community's own health, housing and legal organisations.” (Allam 2010). Our group used the Fitzroy Aboriginal Heritage Walking Trail brochure, created by the City of Yarra, as a guide which took us to the many places in Gertrude Street which

Australian Aborigines are native to Australia and have lived in a territory called the Arnhem Land or northern Australia for almost forty thousand years. Some of the Aborigines live in government housing today, while others still live among the land as their ancestors did. Aborigines are an ethnic group that also has many religious beliefs. They believe in Animism which is the belief that living creatures and the outside environment contain supernatural powers. Their culture and beliefs resonate in their music. Their belief in Animism is reflected in the rhythms that they use that originate in the environment. Another part of Australian music that is characteristic of that country is the use of the didjeridu. This instrument has become a symbol of Australian music and has a rich history in the ethnic music that the Aborigines play. It is also made and performed by these native people in very unique ways. The history of Australian music would not be complete without highlighting the importance of the didjeridu.